Venezuela’s socialist regime claims 8 million voters turned out on Sunday to OK its plan to rewrite the constitution and form a dictatorship. But the company that counts Venezuela’s votes cried fraud on Tuesday.

In a symbolic vote last month, 7.6 million Venezuelans rejected President Nicolás Maduro‘s illegal effort to draft a new, more authoritarian constitution. So Maduro was desperate to top that vote tally when he held his own referendum last Sunday to approve the constitutional rewrite. He said 8.1 million voters turned out - but independent estimates showed fewer than half that cast votes.

Now Smartmatic - the Venezuelan firm that supplies the country’s voting technology - says the Maduro regime manipulated the vote count. Speaking from London after bolting Venezuela, Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said the balloting software was "tampered with" and that at least a million votes were fabricated.

Jose Hernandez, a former Venezuelan diplomat and a South Florida spokesman for Venezuela’s political opposition, said the international community now has no choice but to apply more pressure on Maduro to restore democracy in Venezuela, where the socialists are widely blamed for the worst economic catastrophe in the country's modern history.

“They now have a tangible reason to do more," Hernandez told WLRN. "Nicolás Maduro doesn’t have any possibility to support his dictatorship. The Venezuelan people are suffering. We need to stop this government and change.”

Hernandez said the Smartmatic announcement gives Venezuela’s opposition new momentum. But with the Venezuelan military still backing the regime, Maduro's opponents face dwindling options even as anti-government street protests continue.

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Fears of a dictatorship forming in Venezuela seemed borne out early Tuesday when the government hauled opposition leaders to jail. But this is shaping up to be a bad week for democracy and free enterprise across the Caribbean.

Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, had promised to jail many of his opponents once a new constituent assembly was elected on Sunday. That body will now rewrite Venezuela’s constitution to give Maduro sweeping new executive powers that critics call a dictatorship.

Two of Venezuela's leading opposition figures were taken from their homes in the middle of the night by state security agents on Tuesday, in President Nicolas Maduro's first moves against his enemies since a widely denounced vote giving his government nearly unlimited powers.

A weekend vote in Venezuela to choose a "constituent assembly" that will rewrite the country's constitution - but which critics say will create a Cuba-style dictatorship - led to widespread violence and international rejection of the outcome.

On Monday, President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, branding him a "dictator." Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the so-called constituyente election "a sham."